We were originally supposed to go New Zealand with a group of friends however in the end the best laid plans tend to go awry. The trip had been about one year in the making but alas Cyclone Gita decided to strike just a few days before our planned trip so all our plans were scuppered. The travel insurance agency that we got our policy from informed us that if we cancelled we would be able to claim any cancellation fees that were incurred, however if we chose to go on the holiday and got into an accident then we would not be able to claim for them so obviously we chose to cancel the holiday.
Having decided to cancel our New Zealand trip, we still wanted to go somewhere but at such short notice and not enough time to plan we were kind of at a loss as to where to go. In the end we thought we could go to Bhutan since that has always been on our list of places to visit and it is the one place you can't travel independently unless you are an Indian or Bangladeshi or Maldivian passport holder which we are obviously not. With 2 days to go before our planned holiday, I decided to go down to the tour operator in Singapore to enquire about the possibility of booking a tour but they told us that all the rooms were fully booked, and that there was no way of going. I was rather disappointed but in the end things worked out cos CS had a friend who had a friend who owns a hotel in Bhutan and after CS gave him a call he said he would settle everything for us, from applying for the visa as well as arranging the tour. In addition, there were also still seats available on the Druk Air flight so everything worked out in the end. The funny thing was that because everything was so last minute, in the end we only got our itinerary the day before we flew off. I was telling CS we would be giving all these money to someone we have never even met before.
As luck would have it our flight was rescheduled the morning of our flight. We were supposed to reconfirm our seats but didn't do so, thus we decided to go as per the original timing to ensure that we got a seat on the plane. The plane was a rather small Airbus 319 and we managed to get the window seat on the left side of the plane which is supposedly the side where you can see the Himalayas when it lands in Bhutan. The flight itself was uneventful, there was no inflight entertainment so I passed the time reading while CS watched videos that he downloaded earlier. After a short stopover at Kolkata we were finally on our way to Bhutan. Sadly there were too many clouds that day so we only got a glimpse of the Himalayas when we landed.
When we landed we were greeted by our guide and driver. Our tour guide was a really sweet young girl and our driver was a nice boy who turned out to be the same age as my younger brother. We were brought straight to our hotel where we hungrily gulped down our lunch.
After a quick lunch, we went to the National Museum and Paro Rinpung Dzong. No photos are allowed inside the museum but there was a marvellous display of the masks that the Bhutanese wear during their festivals. There was also a video on loop which showed the various dances during the various Bhutanese festivals so it was a good opportunity for us to see what happens even though the Paro festival season was already over by the time we were there.
There were other exhibits as well which touched upon Bhutan's flora and fauna. There were even some stuffed animals as well which freaked me out a little.
There were other exhibits as well which touched upon Bhutan's flora and fauna. There were even some stuffed animals as well which freaked me out a little.
Paro Dzong
While Bhutan has been opened to tourism for a long time, it is still highly regulated and tourists like ourselves are not really allowed to wander around freely. With most tourist attractions closed by 5pm there really wasn't much we could do, so after a short stroll around town we headed back to our hotel for an early dinner and rest.
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